w the little girl felt when this kind, loving woman
came. "On the afternoon of that eventful day I stood on the porch,
dumb, expectant. I felt approaching footsteps. I stretched out my
hand, as I supposed, to my mother. Some one took it and I was caught
up and held close in the arms of her who had come to reveal all things
to me.

"The next morning my teacher gave me a doll. When I had played with it
a little while, Miss Sullivan slowly spelled into my hand the word
d-o-l-l. I was at once interested in this finger play and tried to
imitate it. When I at last succeeded I was flushed with pleasure and
pride. In the days that followed I learned to spell a great many words
with my fingers, among them were pin, hat, cup, sit, stand, and walk.

"But my teacher had been with me several weeks before I understood
that everything has a name."

Months and years of happy companionship now came to pass for Helen
Keller. Every winter she and her teacher went to Boston where they had
greater chances for study than in the little southern town. Here Helen
learned about snow for the first time and all her memories of her
studies in these years are joined with remembrances of the merry times
she had after school riding on a sled or toboggan and playing in the
snow.

It was when Helen was ten years old that she learned to speak. This
was a great and wonderful experience. Her teacher took her to a lady
who had offered to teach her. It was not easy for a deaf child to
learn to talk, and Miss Keller says:

"The lady passed my hands lightly over her face and let me feel the
position of her tongue and lips when she made a sound. I was eager to
imitate every motion, and in an hour had learned to make the sounds of
M, P, A, S, T, I. In all I had eleven lessons. I shall never forget
the surprise and delight I felt when I uttered my first connected
sentence, 'It is warm.' After that my work was practise, practise,
practise. Discouragement and weariness cast me down frequently; but
the next moment the thought that I should soon be at home and show my
loved ones what I could do spurred me on and I thought, 'My little
sister will understand me now.' When I had made speech my own, I could
not wait to go home. My eyes fill now as I think how my mother pressed
me close to her, taking in every word I spoke, while little Mildred
kissed my hand and danced."

Now a new world was indeed open to the bright girl who was so anxious
to learn. She finished